Coates has been appointed by new IOC President Thomas Bach to lead an experienced team of administrators, also named today, who will be responsible for assisting Tokyo as they prepare to host the Olympics and Paralympics in the Japanese capital for the first time since 1964.

The vice-chairman of the Commission will be Israel's Alex Gilady, the senior vice-president of NBC Sports, who has served on every IOC Coordination for the Summer Games since Athens 2004, including Rio 2016. 

Coates, 63, is one of the IOC's most prominent members, who at the Session in Buenos Aires last month was elected vice-president. 

He was a senior vice-president of Sydney 2000, has been President of the Australian Olympic Committee for 13 years and is head of the International Council of Arbitration for Sport.

Coates served on the London 2012 Coordination Commission and is currently part of the group overseeing Rio de Janeiro's preparations for 2016. 

High-profile names who will serve on the Commission include Sebastian Coe, the former chairman of London 2012 and now head of the British Olympic Association, and Marius Vizer, President of both SportAccord and the International Judo Federation.

SportAccord and International Judo Federation President Marius Vizer has been appointed to serve on the IOC Coordination Commission for Tokyo 2020

Coe will be representing the Association of National Olympic Committees and Vizer the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations.

Neither is currently an IOC member but their appointments to the Commission suggest that both is in line to be recommended to join the world's most exclusive club soon. 

Coe, a close ally of Bach's,regularly praised the role of the IOC Coordination Commission in helping make London 2012 such a success.

Others who will serve on the Tokyo 2020 Commission include the Philippines Mikaela Cojuangco-Jaworski and Zimbabwe's double Olympic swimming gold medallist Kirsty Coventry, both recently elected as IOC members. 

The Commission also includes IOC veterans Anita DeFrantz, the American recently elected to the ruling Executive Board, and France's Guy Drut, the 1976 Olympic 110 metres hurdles champion, and Poland's Irena Szewinska, who won three medals at Tokyo 1964, including a gold in the 4x100m relay. 

Tokyo will hold happy memories for Irena Szewinska, who won a gold medal in the 4x100 metres relay the last time the Japanese capital hosted the Olympics, in 1964